Methylated cytosines deaminate at higher rates than unmethylated cytosines, and the lesions they produce are repaired less efficiently. As a result, methylated cytosines are mutational hotspots. Here, combining rare polymorphism and base-resolution methylation data in humans, Arabidopsis thaliana, and rice (Oryza sativa), we present evidence that methylation state affects mutation dynamics not only at the focal cytosine but also at neighboring nucleotides. In humans, contrary to prior suggestions, we find that nucleotides in the close vicinity (±3 bp) of methylated cytosines mutate less frequently. Reduced mutability around methylated CpGs is also observed in cancer genomes, considering single nucleotide variants alongside tissue-of-origin-matched methylation data. In contrast, methylation is associated with increased neighborhood mutation risk in A. thaliana and rice. The difference in neighborhood mutation risk is less pronounced further away from the focal CpG and modulated by regional GC content. Our results are consistent with a model where altered risk at neighboring bases is linked to lesion formation at the focal CpG and subsequent long-patch repair. Our findings indicate that cytosine methylation has a broader mutational footprint than is commonly assumed.

Genetically identical individuals in bacterial populations can display significant phenotypic variability. This variability can be functional, for example by allowing a fraction of stress prepared cells to survive an otherwise lethal stress. The optimal fraction of stress prepared cells depends on environmental conditions. However, how bacterial populations modulate their level of phenotypic variability remains unclear. Here we show that the alternative sigma factor σ V circuit in Bacillus subtilis generates functional phenotypic variability that can be tuned by stress level, environmental history and genetic perturbations. Using single-cell time-lapse microscopy and microfluidics, we find the fraction of cells that immediately activate σ V under lysozyme stress depends on stress level and on a transcriptional memory of previous stress. Iteration between model and experiment reveals that this tunability can be explained by the autoregulatory feedback structure of the sigV operon. As predicted by the model, genetic perturbations to the operon also modulate the response variability. The conserved sigma-anti-sigma autoregulation motif is thus a simple mechanism for bacterial populations to modulate their heterogeneity based on their environment.

Genetically identical individuals in bacterial populations can display significant phenotypic variability. This variability can be functional, for example by allowing a fraction of stress prepared cells to survive an otherwise lethal stress. The optimal fraction of stress prepared cells depends on environmental conditions. However, how bacterial populations modulate their level of phenotypic variability remains unclear. Here we show that the alternative sigma factor σ V circuit in B. subtilis generates functional phenotypic variability that can be tuned by stress level, environmental history, and genetic perturbations. Using single-cell time-lapse microscopy and microfluidics, we find the fraction of cells that immediately activate σ V under lysozyme stress depends on stress level and on a memory of previous stress. Iteration between model and experiment reveals that this tunability can be explained by the autoregulatory feedback structure of the sigV operon. As predicted by the model, genetic perturbations to the operon also modulate the response variability. The conserved sigma-anti-sigma autoregulation motif is thus a simple mechanism for bacterial populations to modulate their heterogeneity based on their environment.